Album Review: Hero Fisher – Glue Moon

There’s something addictively unsettling about Glue Moon. From the blood red sky on the cover, to the dark tone that permeates much of the record, and embodied best in Hero Fisher’s haunting vocals, it’s a record that you feel prickling at your skin. It never lets its dark side fully take over however, with just enough moments to cut through the gloom, such as the bright indie riffs and soaring melodies of ‘Nippon’ and the soothing classical strings of ‘Bedhead’. The album is like sitting by a campfire in the middle of a dark wilderness. There are moments where you zone out and look out into the pitch black; as far as you know it could go on forever, there’s an uncertainty to it that makes you hair stand on end; but then you snap back to your little well-lit oasis, providing sanctuary from the darkness beyond and the darkness within.

There are some wonderfully stripped back moments in ‘Life Through Closed Eyes’ and ‘Peaceful Mind’ that excel in creating an arresting atmosphere and give Hero’s voice the perfect environment to thrive. ‘Is This Flying?’ changes up the record with some fuzzy blues tones, and the highlight ‘Erase’ boasts some phenomenal percussion and slowly builds up to create something truly spellbinding. It’s a well paced record, and for the most part feels greater than the sum of its parts, although I do feel like it’s too long and would benefit having a bit of filler cut away to give the stronger tracks some breathing room. The electronic elements do add to the mood of the record in small doses, but on tracks such as ‘Lonely’ and ‘If I Die And Nothing Happens’ they overplay their hand and end up being too distracting and out of place. Glue Moon is not the most immediate record, but it has more than a few stand out moments worth sticking around for.